RRSP are not what I would put forward for people earning more than 60 000$ a year. And I would not recommand it to others earning less than 45 000$ a year.
If you manage to downgrade you tax bracket, that is the only good thing you'll get from RRSP. But when people are working to put bread on the table, pay the rent or the mortgage and everything else, most of them can't put away enough money aside for retirement and the incentives for doing it are not good... RRSP's right to contribute 18% opens the door to save 8100$ for retirement to someone earning 45 000$. Given that from these earnings, more than 15 000$ is going to Revenu Canada, Revenu Quebec, QPP, EI, QPIP and maybe unions BEFORE they even see their wage appear in their bank accounts, they can't afford to max out their contributions to RRSP.
And when you tell them that at retirement they'll have approximately the same purchase power (thanks to gouvernemaman) but the RRSP converted to RRIF would prevent them from receiving that earning that they paid for during their working years, they look at you like a pack of deers seeing a pickup coming right at them on a lonely road in the middle of the night.
And when you tell them the TFSA does not impact those social benefits, they go "whew, aaaaah" and smile and say thanks.
By the way... The cap space under the TFSA is growing and it becomes more and more interesting to invest in it... But even in 2015 it was interesting to see that some peeps would reach over 500 000$ with only 46 000$ in investment
https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/gl...29655504/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&
Can you get over a million in RRSP? Sure... Would it be worth? Not at all... Remember, at 71 you'll be forced to take out 5,28% of that million and that percentage will be growing each year... That amount is fully taxable. If I have one million in my TFSA at that age, I would have to withdraw only around 35 000$ to get the same purchase power. When interests rates are low, as in these days, your fortune would periclit at a steeper rate with the RRIF.
That is what happens to MOST savers...
For those with higher revenues, like I said in a preceding post, they'll just defer their taxes to a period of their life where they have less money to spend while they'll be unable to lower their tax bracket.
Corporate bonds are what you should be looking for if you need a safe and, somehow, performing way of parking some investments... Samples
http://etfdb.com/etfdb-category/corporate-bonds/